Hafez al-Assad

Hafez al-Assad (6 October 1930-10 June 2000) was President of Syria from 12 March 1971 to 10 June 2000, succeeding Abdul Halim Khaddam and preceding Bashar al-Assad.

Biography
Hafez al-Assad was born on 6 October 1930 in Qardaha, Alawite State, French Syria, and he was the first member of his family to attend high school. al-Assad joined the Syrian Ba'ath Party at the age of 16 and organized student cells and village outreach programs, and during the 1950s he served in the Syrian Air Force. In 1962, he took part in a failed coup against the Republic of Syria, but in 1963 he took part in a successful coup. He was elected to the decision-making body of the Ba'ath Party, and in 1970 he seized power, riding on a wave of anti-government sentiment after the defeat in the Six-Day War of 1967. al-Assad served as president during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and he began a period of military Leninism, making the office of President more powerful. He then made the government ruled by fellow Alawites instead of the Sunni Muslim majority, but he made Syria a secular society that protected private property. Sunnis became the heads of political organizations while the Alawites were given control of the military and security, and a cult of personality surrounded his family; he was called "the Sanctified One" by the Syrian people. From 1979 to 1982 he crushed a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the country, including the Hama Massacre, and he exiled his brother Rifaat al-Assad when he attempted to seize power while Hafez was ill. During this time, he also had Syria occupy northern Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, leading to clashes with the Israeli forces, and Syria increased its influence over the government there. During the 1990s, al-Assad's plans were ruined; his eldest son Bassel al-Assad died in a car crash, and he decided that his son Bashar al-Assad would succeed him; he also had to worry about fighting fellow Ba'athist Saddam Hussein, backing the United States in the Gulf War in 1991. al-Assad died in 2000, and Bashar succeeded